Papa is the only one among us who has remained unimpressed by Gaurav’s newfound success and all the flashy trappings that came along with it. I know, in Papa’s heart, he wants him to put on a white shirt, a blazer, a tie and go manage a small team of people in a bank or an FMCG company. He’s proud of him, but he doesn’t understand it. Just like he doesn’t understand why his twenty-five-year-old daughter refuses to even start meeting boys for marriage. I have lost count of the times Papa has slyly tried to put the idea of Daksh and me together.
As we settle them into the room, memories flood back of our first stay in a hotel like this seven years ago.
Just then, the bell rings and Vanita walks in. She has changed into her pyjamas, her make-up’s all smeared. Normally, Maa–Papa wouldn’t bother showing up for the wedding of any of my other friends. But Vanita is a different story. They love her and keep telling me to be more like her.
‘Aunty! You should’ve come earlier!’ complains Vanita, pulling Maa into a hug.
She touches Papa’s feet.
Papa touches her head lightly. ‘Where’s Aditya?’
‘He’s still making some last-minute arrangements,’ says Vanita without a crease on her brow, when we both know Aditya’s probably vomiting from all the fancy cocktails Daksh has been whipping out for him.
Maa makes Vanita sit on the bed next to her. ‘Look at you, so beautiful. And yourmehendi! Such nice colour.’
‘I know, right,’ slurs Gaurav from the corner of the room. He points at Vanita. ‘She’s the best! Look at her! She could have been . . .’
Maa glares at Gaurav. Papa grumbles from his side of the room.
‘I don’t mind him,’ says Vanita with a giggle. ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’
‘Ask your best friend also to get married,na,’ pleads Maa. ‘She doesn’t even see the profiles Papa sends her. I don’t know what she wants.’
‘Aunty, she will do it when she feels it’s the right time. For me, the right time is now, maybe not for her.’
Maa lets out a long, sad exhale as if the burden of the entire universe rests on her shoulders. ‘I don’t know when the right time will come for her. She keeps saying career is important, it’s important, don’t we know that. You are also getting married, na? So? What’s the big deal?’
Gaurav’s drunk giggle cuts through the room. ‘What . . . I was . . . what . . . she should have gotten married to Bhaiya only when he asked you!’ says Gaurav playfully, in a jumble of slurred words. ‘It would have—’
‘Gaurav, shut up!’ I cut him. ‘ Maa, please tell him not to drink so much if he can’t handle it. Gaurav, just go and come back when you’re sober.Kuch bhi bolta hai.’
Gaurav’s still looking at me with the dopey grin.
I feel the weight of Maa’s stare as she pivots to face me. ‘Did Daksh ask you to marry you? You told us he didn’t like you.’
Before I can answer, Vanita butts in, ‘Not very seriously, Aunty, just in a jokey sense. Gaurav, you should go to sleep now. Come, I will take you to your room.’
Vanita gets up and walks towards Gaurav.
Maa looks at Papa and then at me. ‘Why did you refuse Daksh? You were shy?’ She affects a very soft tone. ‘Do you want us to talk to Daksh? He will listen to us.’
‘Maa, yaar!’ I cut her. ‘What are you saying? Gaurav’s drunk, he’s saying anything. Please don’t talk to anyone. And when the right time—’
My words are cut by Gaurav’s stupid chuckles. Vanita’s now tugging at his arm, trying to get him to stand up.
‘HE IS NEVER GOING TO MARRY HER!’ slurs Gaurav as he stumbles on to his feet. ‘He could have been my real brother . . . actually, brother-in-law . . . actuallysaala. . . wow . . . oh no . . . I would be the saala—’
‘GAURAV! Please get out,’ I command.
As Vanita yanks Gaurav by the arm towards the door and he staggers away from us, I feel a sense of respite wash over me. As they disappear from my line of vision, I let out my breath.
The door’s just closing when Gaurav asks Vanita, ‘Would . . . you tell me . . . would . . . no, you tell me . . . would . . . Aditya marry you if you aborted his child without telling him? No . . . no . . . chance, right?’
The door closes behind them.
10.
Daksh Dey
